"He attempted to drill through the plastic tank to drain the gas," said Dana Wardell, the service adviser at Thompsons Buick GMC in Placerville, which donated the car to Marshall and is now repairing it. "What he didn’t get out of there probably continued to drip to the ground."

Repairs will cost $1,000 and take about a week.

“Of all the vehicles, this is not the one to pick on," Wardell said. "It’s here to help people, and now it's down until we get another tank sent in."

In the meantime, cancer patients who are elderly, can’t get a ride to the hospital or don’t feel well enough to drive have not been able to rely on the vehicle.

“It made me cry," said Wendy Goossen, the director of cancer services at Marshall Hospital. "I couldn’t believe that somebody would actually do that. Our cancer patients depend on it, so we have a week now where we’re figuring out how to transfer those patients to and from treatment.

GET AND WHEN WE WILL GET SOME COOLING AND A COUPLE OF MINUTES. SOME CANCER PATIENTS ARE SCRAMBLING FOR RIDES TO THE DOCTOR BECAUSE SOMEONE VANDALIZED A CAR THAT LONGS TO THE MARSHALL CANCER RESOURCE CENTER. THERE WAS NO WAY OF MISTAKING IT. THIS CAR WITH ITS MESSAGE OF HOPE AND HEALING PART OF THE WEEKEND IN FRONT OF THIS PLACE FOR CANCER PATIENTS. THE THIEVES HAD TO HAVE THOUGHT TWICE, RIGHT? THEY ATTEMPTED TO DRILL THROUGH THE LAST EXTENT TO DRILL THE GAS AND WHAT THEY DID NOT GET OUT OF THERE CONTINUED TO DRIP OUT ON THE GROUND. THE COST OF GAS IS NOTHING COMPARED WITH THE $1000 OF REPAIRS TO A CAR THAT WAS DONATED. THIS IS NOT THE ONE TO PICK ON. NOW IT IS DOWN UNTIL WE GET ANOTHER. WE SAW TONS OF GASOLINE ON THE FLOOR. I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT SOMEDAY WOULD ACTUALLY DO THAT. OUR CANCER PATIENTS DEPEND ON IT. AND SO WE HAVE A WEEK NOW THAT WE ARE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW WE'RE GOING TO TRANSFER THOSE PATIENTS TO AND FROM TREATMENT. AND FIGURE OUT WHY SOMEONE WOULD GO THAT FAR. PEOPLE ARE DESPERATE. PEOPLE ARE JUST NOT THINKING ABOUT OTHERS.